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12-4 or 9-7? The Blair Walsh Project effect

PolarVortex

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They lost three games this year because of missed field goals:
vs Washington. Lost 17-14. Walsh missed three FG attempts
vs Atlanta. Lost 34-31. Walsh missed game tieing FG with two seconds left on the clock.
vs Arizona. Missed game winning FG with 30 seconds left

Some facts about Blair Walsh and Steven Hauschka:
Walsh hit 21-29 FGs this year.
Steven Hauschka, they guy they cut because they didn't want to pay him or thought he was aging (whatever), hit 29-33 for Buffalo.
Walsh made $800,000 this year.
Hauschka made $1,600,000.

So, a team owned by Paul Allen, one of the 50 richest men in the entire world, missed out on three probable wins this year because they wouldn't pay Hauschka the $800,000 difference that Buffalo offered him.

I'll be fair. Hauschka probably wouldn't have pulled out all three of those games. But I think we can all agree that he would have sealed two of those games. That would have made us 11-5.

Ever since they started laying the defense and Wilson the big bucks, the talent balance on this team has gotten steadily worse. Obviously we can't part with Wilson. So the only way to recover from the talent imbalance is to cut some of the high priced defenders. I still believe in Wagner, Thomas, Sherman (maybe, depending on how well he comes back from injury) and Clark. Guys that we should consider letting go: Bennett, Chancellor, Avril and maybe Richardson. Aside from the defense, I'd also cut Graham.
 

blstoker

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They lost three games this year because of missed field goals:
vs Washington. Lost 17-14. Walsh missed three FG attempts
vs Atlanta. Lost 34-31. Walsh missed game tieing FG with two seconds left on the clock.
vs Arizona. Missed game winning FG with 30 seconds left

To be fair, there were other reasons we lost at least 2 of those games. Missing 3 against Washington is definitely on him. Atlanta wasn’t exactly a gimme, and today the team went ultra conservative and didn’t even try to give him an easier kick, instead choosing to try to equal his season long - a kick he was 2-4 from that distance or longer. Walsh should not be here next season, but he wasn’t the only reason the Hawks lost those games.

Some facts about Blair Walsh and Steven Hauschka:
Walsh hit 21-29 FGs this year.
Steven Hauschka, they guy they cut because they didn't want to pay him or thought he was aging (whatever), hit 29-33 for Buffalo.
Walsh made $800,000 this year.
Hauschka made $1,600,000.

Nice, using Walsh's cap hit, but using Hauschka's salary. Hauschka was $2.6 against the cap. Not that it matters, cause it wasn’t this year that’s the problem. Hauschka will be $3 million against the cap next year, and we are already very tight against the cap. Everyone is call8ng for major moves, well that would be even harder to make any moves.

Also, Hauschka was a free agent, they didn’t cut him, just didn’t re-sign him.

So, a team owned by Paul Allen, one of the 50 richest men in the entire world, missed out on three probable wins this year because they wouldn't pay Hauschka the $800,000 difference that Buffalo offered him.

What does Paul Allen have to do with this? Every team still has a cap, no matter how much money the owner has. Keeping Hauschka May have won those 3 games, but we’d be staring at an even worse situation next season. They made a decision that didn’t pan out as well as we’d have liked, but Hauschka was gonna be hard to keep no matter what.
 

PolarVortex

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With complacent fans, such as yourself, willing to make excuses while guzzling the koolaid, at least the ownership and management will have a free ticket to continue mismanaging the team.
 

blstoker

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With complacent fans, such as yourself, willing to make excuses while guzzling the koolaid, at least the ownership and management will have a free ticket to continue mismanaging the team.

Not complacent, just not thinking Madden-like front office management actually works 8n the real world.
 

JMR

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Yeah, I agree that the missed kicks -- ones that a pro should make -- kept this team out of the playoffs and definitely held us back from at least 2 more wins, maybe 3. But for the sake of accuracy, Hausch counted for $2.6M against the 2017 cap. His base was 1.6 but he got a $3M bonus on his 3 year deal. That doesn't blur the point too much, however. If we had to do it all over again, I'm sure we all agree it would have been a better spend to keep Hausch and not sign Lacy or Joeckel or both. But that's assuming that Hausch wanted to come back. He was a UFA.
 

blstoker

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Hauschka was overly expensive and it wasn’t like he didn’t miss 2 chip shot game on the line kicks last year. It’s easy to say that Seattle shoulda re-signed him because he had such a good season, but at the time there was just as much chance he goes the way of Vanderjagt as have the season he had.
 

Uhsplit

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Polar speaks through 20-20 rear view lenses. His contempt of our HC clouds his perspective.
We homers aren't happy with a 9-7 season. We aren't blind to the team's weaknesses.
Our FO rolled the dice and gambled and this time it turned up snake eyes.
Reload and try again.
 

MrS

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13-3
12-4
10-6
10-5-1
9-7
?-?

this isnt "reload and try again", this is "the team is regressing every year". what the homers seem to want is to go into next year with only roster changes. we dont have draft picks, we dont have cap space, we arent going to be making any serious changes unless we cut/trade a lot of players.

this team is going to be bad next year and changes WILL happen, better to get ahead of the curve and do it now instead of losing another year of wilsons career for nothing.
 

JMR

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13-3
12-4
10-6
10-5-1
9-7
?-?

this isnt "reload and try again", this is "the team is regressing every year". what the homers seem to want is to go into next year with only roster changes. we dont have draft picks, we dont have cap space, we arent going to be making any serious changes unless we cut/trade a lot of players.

this team is going to be bad next year and changes WILL happen, better to get ahead of the curve and do it now instead of losing another year of wilsons career for nothing.

Just categorically false. All sorts of players were on 1 year deals and/or at the end of their contracts. The cap will also probably increase to just under $180M next year. Graham, Lacy and Joeckel salaries alone were $23M this year that are now all gone. Avril & Kam may not be able to play again, and the team could also be moving on from Bennett. Those 6 players right there, if they are all not Seahawks in 2018, represents around $40M in cap room that is suddenly available.
 

MrS

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overthecap shows we have 37 players under contract and 19m in room. that isnt a lot of room.

if we cut avril, bennett, sherman, chancellor we will have more room but they will be replaced with low round draft picks.
 

JMR

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overthecap shows we have 37 players under contract and 19m in room. that isnt a lot of room.
This FO proves over and over again it can create cap space when needed. Did you already forget about the trades for Sheldon Richardson and Duane Brown? For that matter, Jimmy Graham & Percy Harvin too. Teams create cap space all the time.

if we cut avril, bennett, sherman, chancellor we will have more room but they will be replaced with low round draft picks.
Not necessarily true. Some of those replacements are already on the roster. There are several younger plays on the DL that appear ready to step up -- Clark, Jones, Reed, Jordan, and then you have whatever will become of Malik McDowell (maybe nothing, but he potential is still there). The secondary performed well even w/o Kam and Sherm. I suspect Sherm will be back to join Griffin, Coleman (RFA), possibly Maxwell, and likely Shead to make a very solid group of CBs. McDougald re-sign would be a suitable replacement if Kam is done. Behind him and ET, you have players that you just drafted in 2017.
 

jerseyhawksfan79

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The one position you can't go cheap on is ST. If you have a top 10 kicker, he needs to get paid. Lost out on 3 games this year cause they went cheap. Need to draft a strong leg kicker this year.
 

JMR

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The one position you can't go cheap on is ST. If you have a top 10 kicker, he needs to get paid. Lost out on 3 games this year cause they went cheap. Need to draft a strong leg kicker this year.
I'm not convinced you have to spend big money to get a reliable kicker, and Walsh was right around the league's median for kickers, so plenty of other teams out there spent a lot less than the Hawks. Plus, if there was anyone here who wanted Hausch back after last season, I don't remember who they were.

But we are clearly looking for a replacement for Walsh. No clue who is going to be available though...
 

jerseyhawksfan79

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I'm not convinced you have to spend big money to get a reliable kicker, and Walsh was right around the league's median for kickers, so plenty of other teams out there spent a lot less than the Hawks. Plus, if there was anyone here who wanted Hausch back after last season, I don't remember who they were.

But we are clearly looking for a replacement for Walsh. No clue who is going to be available though...

I was for one to keeping Haush. Yes I understood he had a down year, but so did the rest of the team. I don't know who's out there either but I think spending a 5th or 6th rounder on one of the top 5 college kickers in the draft is the way to go.
 

JMR

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I was for one to keeping Haush. Yes I understood he had a down year, but so did the rest of the team. I don't know who's out there either but I think spending a 5th or 6th rounder on one of the top 5 college kickers in the draft is the way to go.
You were definitely one of the few then. Hausch missed 6 XPs last year plus the gimme chip shot in OT vs Arizona. If Walsh cost us the playoffs this year, then Hausch cost us HFA last year.

But yeah, we have something like 7 picks in rounds 5 & 7 right now. Using 1 of them on a kicker doesn't seem like a horrible idea. Then maybe you also bring in a vet for some competition. Matt Bryant is a UFA. Caleb Sturgis too, and certainly several others.
 

JMR

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I think one thing the team needs to find a way to address is the penalties. Led the league in flags and broke the NFL all time record for penalty yardage in a season. I think part of it is the PI call is broken. Seems the number of cheap 30 yard gains on phantom PI calls was at an all time high this season. It's pretty clear the league has some sort of issue with the way we are playing, so we need to make an effort to figure out what the deal is and adjust for it. Just continuing the exact same approach and hoping they'll cut us a break would be foolish.

Parting ways with Bennett and sitting Ifedi could be a couple quick fixes to help the problem. It doesn't solve the PI deal, but it would be a start at least.
 

seahawksfan234

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They lost three games this year because of missed field goals:
vs Washington. Lost 17-14. Walsh missed three FG attempts
vs Atlanta. Lost 34-31. Walsh missed game tieing FG with two seconds left on the clock.
vs Arizona. Missed game winning FG with 30 seconds left

Some facts about Blair Walsh and Steven Hauschka:
Walsh hit 21-29 FGs this year.
Steven Hauschka, they guy they cut because they didn't want to pay him or thought he was aging (whatever), hit 29-33 for Buffalo.
Walsh made $800,000 this year.
Hauschka made $1,600,000.

So, a team owned by Paul Allen, one of the 50 richest men in the entire world, missed out on three probable wins this year because they wouldn't pay Hauschka the $800,000 difference that Buffalo offered him.

I'll be fair. Hauschka probably wouldn't have pulled out all three of those games. But I think we can all agree that he would have sealed two of those games. That would have made us 11-5.

Ever since they started laying the defense and Wilson the big bucks, the talent balance on this team has gotten steadily worse. Obviously we can't part with Wilson. So the only way to recover from the talent imbalance is to cut some of the high priced defenders. I still believe in Wagner, Thomas, Sherman (maybe, depending on how well he comes back from injury) and Clark. Guys that we should consider letting go: Bennett, Chancellor, Avril and maybe Richardson. Aside from the defense, I'd also cut Graham.

What's your nickname for Blair Walsh?

You had some great nicknames back on CBS. "Fraud Mode" and "The Plague" for Tarvaris Jackson. I'll be honest, I started calling him 'The Plague' amongst my friends and it caught on. Definitely stole that one from you.
 

seahawksfan234

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To be fair, there were other reasons we lost at least 2 of those games. Missing 3 against Washington is definitely on him. Atlanta wasn’t exactly a gimme, and today the team went ultra conservative and didn’t even try to give him an easier kick, instead choosing to try to equal his season long - a kick he was 2-4 from that distance or longer. Walsh should not be here next season, but he wasn’t the only reason the Hawks lost those games.



Nice, using Walsh's cap hit, but using Hauschka's salary. Hauschka was $2.6 against the cap. Not that it matters, cause it wasn’t this year that’s the problem. Hauschka will be $3 million against the cap next year, and we are already very tight against the cap. Everyone is call8ng for major moves, well that would be even harder to make any moves.

Also, Hauschka was a free agent, they didn’t cut him, just didn’t re-sign him.



What does Paul Allen have to do with this? Every team still has a cap, no matter how much money the owner has. Keeping Hauschka May have won those 3 games, but we’d be staring at an even worse situation next season. They made a decision that didn’t pan out as well as we’d have liked, but Hauschka was gonna be hard to keep no matter what.

With complacent fans, such as yourself, willing to make excuses while guzzling the koolaid, at least the ownership and management will have a free ticket to continue mismanaging the team.

A good old fashion shit talking session between two CBS legends. Let's go. Where's Kagezilla?
 
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